Adalaxia Brigid Zeen to Her Parents, Stardate 85219.26

July 25, 2010 at 11:51 pm (Letters)

Dear Zida and Jada,

It was good to see you at graduation.  I’ve hung your gift right above my bunk where I can see it every night before going to sleep.  And though they don’t give lowly ensigns a lot of access to the holodeck, I’ve already used Brigid’s program more than a few times.  Oh, and I saw Zida’s handiwork in the rock jumpers.  Their calls were perfect and they leapt around just like they do back home.  One of them even tried to bite me!

So far, life on the Dublin Bay is about what I expected in some ways and a big surprise in others.  The Academy did a nice job preparing us for the sometimes-overwhelming routine of working on a starship.  I can’t tell you how many diagnostics I’ve run in the last few days.  I know it won’t always be this way.  There will be moments of intense, even terrifying, activity—and when those come, I think the Academy will have prepared us for those too.

What I didn’t expect was that this ship would feel quite so…well, crowded.  There were always lots of people around at the Academy, but it was also always possible to get away.  Now that we’re on a large metal box, surrounded by vacuum and hard radiation, there isn’t anywhere else to go.  Yes, there’s the holodeck, but despite all the work Brigid and Zida did, and despite the realism of some of the other programs I’ve seen, I know they aren’t real and that means something to me.

I’m also shocked at how little of the ship I see on a daily basis.  I’m in my quarters, then in the mess hall, off to engineering, maybe a little holodeck time, to the mess hall again, sometimes to the lounge, then back to my quarters.  I’m exaggerating a little.  I have probably crawled through most of the ship’s Jeffries tubes already.  That is apparently a privilege reserved for new ensigns. But I have yet to see the bridge, and I may not for a long time.

I think, in retrospect, that the Academy was somewhat bridge-centric.  We saw images of bridges, did exercises on mock bridges, learned to envision ourselves on the bridge.  I suppose they were training us for command, and since many of the instructors had captained starships, it was natural for them to think from that perspective.  But it’s amazing how few people actually get up there.  I don’t even think the chief engineer’s visited once since I arrived.  I know we’ve talked about this before—I don’t have any aspirations to captain a ship.  Lots of people have rewarding careers without doing that.  So it’s not that I’m drawn by the allure of command.  Maybe I just wish that engineering had a few more windows.

I have it on good authority that we’ll be on an extended survey mission beginning soon, and that might mean some time off the ship.  I’m also happy to be heading out into the great unknown.  I sometimes wonder if I shouldn’t have considered entering the science track at the Academy more seriously.  I know, I know, I would have hated all the theory, though engineering classes had their fair share.  I would have definitely missed taking things apart and putting them back together.  I can’t tell you how many pieces of equipment I’ve had to repair for the science ensigns around here.

Up till now, we’ve been ferrying dignitaries from one system to another in the Vulcan and Teneebia sectors.  (I did get to see Vulcan itself from orbit!)  Seems like there’s a conference or summit of some sort in the works.  I’d guess that Jada already knows all about it, certainly more than I do.  There was a rumor we were headed to the Klingon border—but don’t worry.  It got a bunch of the ensigns on security detail excited—finally something to shoot at—but I overheard the first officer say it wasn’t true.

I need to run a diagnostic—what else—so I’ll stop here.  By the way, my new roommate, Bav, says hello.  She’s also an engineering ensign.  And she’s Bolian and so, as she herself likes to point out, is about as outgoing and friendly as you’d expect.  We’re an odd couple.  I imagine there’s some psychological formula by which bunkmates get assigned.  I’ll let you know if she starts to rub off on me.

I’ll send another letter soon.  Tell everyone there I miss them.  Love you both.

Brigid

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Brigid’s Bio

July 15, 2010 at 9:16 pm (Biographical Information)

Adalaxia Brigid Zeen was born on Trill. However, her parents belonged to a small group disatisfied with what they saw as excessive celebration of joining. Her mother, an archeologist who studied pre-symbiont history, was in frequent conflict with the Trill Science Ministry. Soon after her first birthday, she relocated with her parents to a new colony, a joint venture with a group of humans of Scandavian descent, called New Umea.

On their new home, Adalaxia’s mother became lead liasion with the Federation, which both supported the mixed-species cooperation on the colony and worried about the presence of a Trill splinter group. Her father, an ecologist, set to work studying Umean flora and fauna, often bringing Adalaxia with him. The Umean climate was cold and unforgiving, but Adalaxia took to it. As she grew, she spent increasing amounts of time hiking on her own.

Adalaxia also became an adept mechanic and took special pleasure in working with machines. Such work gave her the same concrete sense of accomplishment as supporting herself in the wild. Under the tutalage of Brigid Olafson, a former Starfleet officer, she eventually became known as the colony’s “chief engineer.”  When she was old enough, she also took an active part in establishing and maintaining Umea’s orbital solar arrays.

Adalaxia has strong connections to Umea. Her links to Trill are more attenuated. Growing up, she was more interested in stories about Earth and human cultures.  She was particularly attracted to human insistence on self-improvement, without shortcuts or reliance on “artificial” means. Taking on a human custom, she adopted “Brigid” as her middle name. 

Because of her time alone in the Umean wilderness and her technical skills, Adalaxia is self-reliant and confident in her ability to solve any practical problem she confronts. But she is also sometimes uncertain in her dealings with other people and regards her first opportunity at captaining a starship as a mixed blessing.

Currently, she is in command of the USS Deborah Sampson.

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